


The Void's Breath

by NightmareoftheCabin



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, mcyt
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Execution, Fluff, I posted this before but then deleted it, Now I'm posting it again, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pollution - Freeform, Respawn Mechanics, So the void is empty right... RIGHT???, The Void, Update schedule is bees, Winged!BBH, how do you tag help, my first book
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29864013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightmareoftheCabin/pseuds/NightmareoftheCabin
Summary: Not many know much about the void. Most think it is an empty black vacuum, devoid of life.They couldn't be more wrong.
Relationships: I guess skephalo if you squint, all platonic vibes here :)
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

Not many know much about the void. Most think it is an empty black vacuum, devoid of life.

They couldn't be more wrong.

If you were to survive in there for longer than your fragile human body allows, you would feel it. Feel the compressing and decompressing of its breathing around you. Hear the dull thudding of its heart. See the thousands of eyes floating in its depths.

But, the void is not a being. Although it has breath, eyes, and a heartbeat, that is not enough to be a being in of itself. These things must be connected, unified, to form a being.

And every few decades, they are.

The breath becomes uneven in an area, disrupting the balance and bringing two aipars closer to each other. And when these aipars meet, they begin to circle around each other, separated only a few centimeters. The void around it gets sucked towards them, condensing and slowly assuming a humanoid shape. 

The being flows with the breath and heartbeat surrounding it, and eventually develops its own.

This is how creatures of the void are created.

These creatures, voidlings, have glowing white eyes and leathery dark grey skin. Black horns adorn their head in various arrangements, and long spined tails sprout from their lower back. Some are gifted with large feathery wings, sometimes stretching to over 6 meters in length. These wings sometimes came in sets of two or even three, four being possible but almost unheard of.

For centuries, these beings wandered alone. Eventually, however, they found others. These voidlings began to gather in large groups, and began to  _ build. _ They made great cities, finding out where their fellow voidlings were most likely to spawn. The scattered void beings united to become a powerful and thriving civilization, long before the beings of the overworld had.

However, this was not a perfect system.

The void is an ecosystem just as any other, and the flow of progress began to corrupt it. The void became polluted and evil, the purity and life it once held being stamped out by the desire for more _. _ The lesser beings died off, poisoned by the ever growing corruption. The government union that had kept the system fair and equal dissolved into a monarchy of evil and complete power.

As the void became more and more polluted and evil, so did the voidlings. Over the eons, they lost their large feathery wings, as well as the ability to grow more than one set. Smaller leathery wings grew in their place, poisoned and evil. The magic the voidlings possessed was corrupted as well. Instead of the pure, beautiful magic that varied greatly from being to being, their magic was corrupted, made up of nothing but raw power. Their eyes began to change as well, the once bright spheres of light that floated around the expanse of the void turning a dull grey and losing their glow.

The most notable change was their personalities. The voidlings used to have a wide variety of personalities, each one different from the next. But as the corruption of the void grew, they all turned evil and bloodthirsty.

The void had been damaged beyond repair by the greed and ignorance of others, and the voidlings had turned themselves, a once proud and beautiful race, into soulless monsters.

_ The figure shifted in the darkness of the void. It could feel itself breathing, felt the pressure of the void pressing down on it like a warm blanket. It flexed its wings, spreading first the top ones, followed by the lower ones, and ending with the ones on its tail. _

_ Then it blinked, opening a set of glowing white eyes. _


	2. Part I: The Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I screwed up the prologue and first part and combined them, so I had to fix that. Sorry if you thought it was a new chapter, I'll post another later today.

"Hello?" He asked, looking over his shoulder and around the empty space. Well, it wasn't empty. There were these slightly glowing grey specks that floated around, but not much else. 

Although…

He felt this strange feeling creeping along his skin and flowing in his lungs as he breathed. It felt like some disgusting oily slime, in the air and coating his throat and lungs.

Also, why was he referring to himself as a he? He didn't even know what a he was! Oh well, he guessed that's what he was now.

"Hello!" He turned around to see a dark grey humanoid creature flying towards him, using two bat-like wings. The creature looked a lot like him, to be honest, but with the exception of the wings and eyes. While he had three sets of large feathery wings and glowing white eyes, the stranger had one set of smaller leathery wings and dimly glowing grey eyes, much like the specks flowing around him.

"Welcome to the Capital! I assume you have some questions, and I will do my best to answer them. First of all, you are a voidling, and are in the void. Although…" The stranger trailed off as he took a closer look at the voidling's odd features. 

"Hm. Must be a mutation of some sorts. Anyways, my name's Jaken, let's get going!" The stranger still hovered above him, reaching out a hand which he hesitantly took.

The stranger pulled him up through the expanse, until a large platform came into view. They stopped there, and he was barely able to stay on the platform due to the low gravity.

He followed Jaken as he traversed the strange open pathways, eventually leading him to a sprawling city.

"We only get new ones every few decades, I mean, other than the ones they make in the labs to do grunt work. Now, let's go see the president to give you your new name!"

He silently followed Jaken through the city, listening intently as he explained what was going on and occasionally asking a question or two.

They kept walking until they reached a large structure, seeming like a cross between a palace and a skyscraper. Figures flew from building to building, filling up the endless sky.

Jaken stopped outside, pointing to a bench.

"Ok, I'll go in and ask the president about your new name. You can wait here, ok?"

He nodded as Jaken gave him a thumbs up and scurried into the building. He went over and sat on the bench, pulling his wings behind him and resting his chin on his knee.

About thirty minutes later, Jaken walked back out, looking excited.

"Ok, I spoke to him, and I have your new name." Bad nodded as Jaken spoke.

"Ok, your name is Badboyhalo!" Jaken seemed very excited at the prospect of his name. "Oh! And one more thing. He said since you were new and all, he'd let you do today's execution!"

"Execution?" Badboyhalo asked warily.

"Oh yeah! We execute humans every once in a while, just to keep spirits high. The president chooses who has the privilege of doing it, I've only done it once." Jaken rambled on as he sat next to Bad on the bench. The talk of killing someone for fun made him sick to the stomach.

"So, you permakill humans for fun? Isn't that a bit cruel?"

Jaken tilted his head at him questioningly. "What do you mean? They don't have feelings. It's like a sport. It keeps people happy." He answered, wrinkling his nose. "I've never met anyone who's called it "cruel" before. We have actually been able to have executions every day now, the scientists found a way to effect the human with void so it doesn't die down here. They also managed to trick the respawn mechanic so that it respawns down here after we kill it."

Before Bad could respond Jaken got up. "Oh! It starts in fifteen minutes, we should probably get going."

Bad followed him as he walked towards a small building with a stage in front of it. There were already people crowded around the stage, a bloodthirsty look in their eyes. It made Bad sick to see how desperate for violence and bloodshed they were.

The duo stood on the right side of the stage, Jaken tapping his foot impatiently and Bad trying to absorb everything he had just been told.

_ So they kill the same human every time? I guess they said they don't have feelings, but it still seems wrong… _

His train of thought was interrupted by two voidlings dragging a figure out into the stage, and the resounding cheer from the crowd that followed.

"Come on." Jaken dragged him up into the stage, the crowd falling silent as they saw him. Confused and judgemental whispers floated around the area, making Bad want to disappear. Instead, he tucked his wings behind him as best he could, folding the ones on his tail so that they barely showed.

His self-conscious thoughts were interrupted by a sword being shoved into his hands. It felt oily and dirty, and felt heavier than it should have.

He looked over at the human standing on the other side of the stage. It was being held in place by two voidlings, although it looked like they were more holding it up than holding it in place. It looked tired and hungry, and large bags hung under it's indigo eyes. Its short blonde hair was messy and covered in black dust. Multiple black scars adorned its arms and legs, and it looked scared and broken. Bad was surprised to see how much color it had, everything in the void was either black or grey.

The human was thrown to the ground, and it grunted as it hit the hard void material. Jaken guestured to it, making a "well, get on with it" face at him. Bad gulped as he walked closer to the human, pity washing over him as he saw it shrink away from the blade he was holding.

He held the blade over it as the crowd started chanting. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as it closed its eyes.

_ Come on. It doesn't have feelings, remember? You just have to drop the sword and it'll be over. It won't permadie, it can respawn. Just do it. _

Was it true that they didn't have feelings? This one seemed so sad and scared. He took another look at its pale face and realized he couldn't do it. Even if it would respawn, he couldn't take the life of an innocent creature.

So, instead of thrusting it into the human's stomach, Bad threw the sword across the stage. Shocked gasps rippled throughout the crowd as it clattered to the ground, making him want to curl up and die even more. The human cracked one eye open as it realized that it wasn't dying, before opening both of them and looking Bad in the eyes. It's indigo eyes were confused, but had an underlying tone of hope.

The moment was ended as the human was yanked back, the voidlings dragging it back inside the building.

Jaken grabbed his arm, dragging him offstage and around the corner of the building.

"What in the eternal void was that?!" Jaken screamed at him, cornering him in an alleyway. "People wait their whole lives for that opportunity, and you threw it away like it was nothing!"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't do it." Bad solemnly replied, staring at the ground.

Jaken pinched the bridge of his nose with a dark grey hand.

"I knew something was wrong with you. It's ok, we'll find a way to fix it."

"Wait, fix it?" Bad asked, dread creeping up his spine.

"Cure your mutation! Your weird wings, your eyes, and most importantly, your attitude. You don't just turn that opportunity down, it's not a thing a sane voidling does. Don't worry, you'll fit in just fine once we get rid of those things."

Bad gulped as they walked out of the alley, staying quiet as Jaken led him to his apartment. It was small, having a small living room with a bedroom leading off of it.

He sat down on the dingy couch in the living room as he thought about the events of the past day. He was still worried about the whole "curing of his mutation" part. He didn't particularly want to be cured, he felt fine how he was. He then decided to take a closer look at his wings. He couldn't fully stretch them inside of the small apartment, but did the best he could.

He had one large set of black feathered wings on his upper back, about three meters from one tip to another if he fully stretched them out. A smaller pair clung to his lower back, about two meters in total. He also had a very small pair on the end of his tail, only spreading to about 60 centimeters at most. The voidlings that he saw only had one set of black bat-like wings, and only had a two meter wingspan at the very most.

He saw a small balcony outside the living room, and opened the sliding door. He stepped into the platform, watching as the voidlings swarmed through the streets and around the buildings. He fully stretched his wings out here, although it felt just as stuffy as the apartment to him. He flapped his wings, once, twice, a few loose feathers falling out and fluttering to the ground. He opened and closed the wings on his tail, looking back at them as they fluttered slightly.

He vaguely remembered Jaken telling him the best place to practice flying was at the edge of the city, in the areas with less gravity.

He walked back inside, closing the door to the balcony and grabbing a large black cloak. It had holes large enough to fit his upper wings, but the ones on his lower back didn't fit. He resigned to wrapping the lower ones around his abdomen, the cloak covering them neatly.

He walked down the stairs to the main lobby of the apartment building, walking out into the street. He fit himself into the crowd, trying to remember the direction he came from when Jaken took him to the Capital Center.

He yelped as someone stepped on one of the wings on his tail.

"Hey! Watch it, flappy!" The voidling that stepped on his wing snarled at him as he pulled his tail in and cradled it against his chest. He pulled the hood over his head as he hurried away from the angry voidling.

About two hours later, he ended up at the edge of the city. There were a few other voidlings, but they stayed far away from him, to his relief.

He walked down a path that led deeper into the void, not the same one he arrived on, but similar.

Once he reached a platform that was low enough for him to easily jump over a meter in the air, he took off his cloak, unwrapping his lower wings. Stepped closer to the edge of the small platform, tail swaying behind him.

He spread his wings, taking a deep breath before jumping straight up into the air. He flapped his wings once while in the air, propelling him upwards  _ fast. _ He yelped when he realized how far up he had gotten, bracing for impact as he crashed back into the platform.

_ Ok. That went well. _

He tried again, this time flapping his wings less vigorously. He was pleased when he went another meter or so in the air, but not as far as he went last time.

He repeated this maneuver a few times until he could successfully fly two flaps-worth into the air and land safely multiple times in a row. He debated not calling it a flaps-worth, but gave up when he couldn't come up with anything better.

Then, comes the hard part.

He took off and went up three flaps-worth this time, but instead of safely flapping his way back down, using his lower wings to tilt himself so that he was parallel with the platform. He felt a wave of exhilaration before he realized that he had no idea how to turn. He started silently panicking as he casually gilded lower and lower into the void, eventually stopping when he hit zero gravity.

He huffed and tilted himself upwards, using his upper wings to thrust himself out of the zero gravity zone. As he positioned himself to start gliding again, he tried a few things.

First, he tried tilting the back of one of his lower wings up, which ended up with him flipping upside-down and falling back into the zero gravity zone.

Second, he tried to use his tail to alter the balance, but just ended up losing control and falling.

As he sat in the empty void, he felt the wings on his tail flutter, and got an idea. He flew out of the zero gravity area once again, and this time when he leveled himself out, stretched one of the wings on his tail.

He yelped as he was yanked sideways, doing a full 180° turn. He somehow managed to even himself out, and felt happiness wash over him as he continued to fly, angling himself towards the platform he originally came from.

He practiced flying for a few more hours, and got relatively good at it, even managing to do a few barrel rolls.

Eventually, he got tired, and decided to try to fly back to his apartment.

He grabbed his cloak, folding it and holding it against his chest. Then, he took off.

He steadily flew higher and higher, the gravity getting more and more intense. He had already flown up to this hight, but hadn't stayed for very long.

He eventually made his way back to the city, but wasn't able to fly all the way back to his apartment like he'd hoped. He walked up the stars, stopping on the 14th floor. He staggered over to his apartment, sliding in the key card and dragging himself into his bedroom. He flopped onto his bed, exhausted from the day's endeavors, and immediately feel asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmmm, whoever could that human be? Maybe we'll never know.
> 
> Feel free to guess, discuss, or scream in the comments


	3. Part II: The Voidlings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff goes down in this chapter. Also, some angst for the soul :)

_He opened his eyes to see nothing. Well, not entirely nothing. He was in an empty black space, with nothing but glowing white star-like specks. He felt wings on his back, and gave them a hearty flap, which propelled him upwards. He noticed that the air was crisp clean, and felt like it cleared his throat with every breath._

_He soon realized that this place was not, in fact, empty. As he flew through the expanse, he saw little islands populated with strange creatures. There were these large spider-like creatures, but with ten legs instead of eight and only three eyes. Small pitch-black lizards scurried around the strange void material, hiding in uneven lumps._

_This place felt pure, happy, alive._

_He wanted to stay here forever._

Bad woke up from the dream, almost choking on the oily, disgusting air. What happened to the place in his dreams? What happened to the beautiful and unpolluted place full of life and freedom?

He groggily dragged himself out of bed, rubbing his eyes as he walked out onto the balcony. The grimy air coated his lungs as he yawned, dream quickly fading away and being replaced by the memories of the past day.

He noticed his clothes were wrinkled and messy, most likely from sleeping in them. He went into the small bedroom and raided the closet, pulling out a simple black long-sleeved top, along with some dark grey jeans.

He quickly closed the door to change, putting his dirty clothes on the bed.

Bad was just about to try to fly out of his apartment when a knocking sound came from his door. He opened it to reveal Jaken, who was smiling brightly.

"Why hello there, Badboyhalo! I have some exciting news!" Bad raised an eyebrow at this but didn't respond. "We found a cure for your mutation! It's back at the lab, do you mind if we fly?"

Bad slowly nodded, not particularly wanting to be "cured". Nevertheless, he followed Jaken as he walked to the balcony, a sinking feeling of dread filling his stomach.

They took off, Bad having grabbed a cloak and clutching it to his chest.

After a few minutes, they arrived at their destination, one of the higher levels in the Capital Center. They landed on a small platform a few levels from the top, and Bad followed Jaken inside a large door.

A few voidlings looked up as they entered, putting down their various tasks. One of them walked over to Bad, circling around him and pulling on one of his wings so that it spread. Bad was extremely uncomfortable, not moving as another came over and prodded at his tail.

After a few very awkward minutes, Bad spoke up.

"So, what is this "cure"?" He asked hesitantly.

"Oh! Right. Urstrin is getting it now. You see, for the eyes, attitude, and feathers, it's just a bit of concentrated void magic. Although for the multiple wings, we had to resort to a more, well, blunt solution.

Bad gulped heavily as a taller voidling walked out of a back room with a syringe full of some strange black goop, as well as a small sword. He was starting to regret coming with Jaken.

"W-wait!" Bad cried out as they advanced towards him. "I don't really want to, I'm fine with how I am!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Badboyhalo, did you think you had a choice?" Jaken's voice hissed in his ear as a hand landed on his shoulder, sending shivers up his spine.

He felt a hand brush his wings, and reach to grab him. Before it could, however, Bad spun around, flinging his wings out and tearing the hand off his shoulder. The voidlings were knocked over by his large wings, stunning them, and he made a break for the exit.

He heard yelling behind him as he launched himself into the air, pounding his wings to get as far away from his pursuers as possible.

"Get him!" He heard Jaken's angry voice yell from behind him. To Bad's horror, all the voidlings in the area turned to start pursuing him, obviously thirsty for violence and action.

He screeched to a halt as a light grey voidling flew in front of him, making a sharp turn to the left. He got about one wingbeat before another voidling blocked his path, forcing him to make a sharp upwards turn. He flew as fast as he could, but he could feel exhaustion wearing at his bones. Bad knew that he couldn't keep flying forever, he needed to come up with a plan, and fast.

He swiftly flattened out, flying horizontally a few meters before nose diving towards the ground.

Suddenly, he felt a hand grasp his left ankle, and before he could shake it off, plunge a dagger into his shin.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot more than it should have.

It felt like his entire leg had been dipped in pooling acid, eating away at the tissue.

He screamed in pure agony as his wingbeats faltered and he was sent plummeting back towards the city.

Bad felt hands grabbing him through the pain, trapping him in place.

_No._

Fear coursed through him as the voidlings around him landed, pinning him on his stomach against the ground.

His blood ran cold as he felt the sharp, grimy end of a sword being pressed against his lower set of wings.

_This can't be happening. Nononono._

He closed his eyes, panic taking control of his motions. In an instant, the hands holding him down were gone. Well, they were there, but Bad realized that he could easily move around them. Angry and confused shouts rang throughout the small crowd as he easily flowed away from them. Hands swiped through his thin, gas like form, still trying to grab him as he floated away. He floated up to the lab, watching as the voidlings spread out to try to find him.

Suddenly, he dropped to the floor, gasping for breath as he shifted back into a voidling form.

_I need to get out of here._

He limped his way around the large lab, stopping at every room until he found one that might be of interest. There was a large machine, made up of eight main devices, a control board, and a bunch of wires connecting them.

He somehow knew this was a portal, and that he was the only one that could activate it.

He moved to stand in the middle of the eight devices, taking a deep breath and holding his hands out to either side of him.

Suddenly, a burst of pure void magic swirled from his fingertips, flowing to the devices. The devices started sparking and emitting smoke as a portal appeared right where bad was standing.

He saw Jaken and a few other voidlings appear in the doorway just as he was swept away from the void and the machines exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to say what you liked, didn't like, sing of your woes in the comments :)
> 
> Also, when I copy and paste this form the Google docs it doesn't save italics, so if there's some weird first-person lines that's just some inner thinking I forgot to fix.


End file.
